The Taiwanese Connection—A New Peril for Rhinos Esmond Bradley Martin and Chryssee Bradley Martin

The Taiwanese connection—a new peril for rhinos Esmond Bradley Martin and Chryssee Bradley Martin

In 1985 Taiwan responded to widespread concern about its role in the international rhinoceros trade by banning imports and exports of all rhinoceros products. It is disheartening and alarming that, three years later, the trade still thrives and little has been done to enforce the new law. The authors describe the situation in Taiwan, discuss the implications for the world's last rhinoceros populations and recommend what action should be taken. Today there is probably more rhinoceros horn the President of the Society for Wildlife and for sale in Taiwan (the Republic of China) than Nature. He also had meetings with two other anywhere else. Moreover, during the last three Ministers, Department Heads and senior offi- years the country has become what may well be cials. All agreed that a high priority should be the world's largest entrepot for the horn of both given to enforcing the law, and ways of curtailing African and Asian species of rhino. Even though trade in rhino horn and hide were proposed. imports and exports are illegal, the trade thrives, During that December 1985 visit, a survey of the with Taiwanese businessmen purchasing large main wholesalers and traditional medicine shops quantities of horn from South Africa, Malaysia, in Taipei, Kaohsiung and Tainan revealed hun- Hong Kong and Thailand, which they smuggle dreds of kilogrammes of rhino horn for sale. In into Taiwan by air and sea. Taipei, the capital city, 76 per cent of the phar- Taiwan became a significant importer of rhino macies investigated offered rhino horn. White horn in the early 1970s when the economy rhino Ceratotherium simum horn imported from began to boom, and the people had more South Africa was particularly abundant, and not money to spend. According to Customs statistics, just in small pieces. Many shops had whole 7281 kg were imported between 1972 and horns, and some had extensive stocks. There August 1985. However, considerable additional were 35 white rhino horns in one pharmacy quantities came into the country unofficially alone. because some traders did not declare their im- In 1970 Taiwan's average income per person ports to avoid paying taxes. The role of Taiwan in was only US$ 390 but by 1988 this had increased the international trade in rhino horn prompted by more than 15 times to US$ 6000, and the international conservation organizations, espe- country had become one of the richest in Asia. cially the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to Foreign currency reserves of over US$75 billion encourage Taiwan to ban imports and exports of are now the third highest total in the world, and all rhinoceros products, which the government from a per capita standpoint are the highest for duly did in August 1985 (Martin and Vigne, any industrialized country- The New Taiwanese 1987). dollar has gone up 40 per cent in value against the US dollar since early 1986. Four months later, EBM went to Taiwan under the auspices of WWF to discuss the implementa- One effect of the rapid economic growth is that tion of the new law with Dr Feng-shu Chang, there is an excessive amount of cash in the who is a Minister of State without portfolio and economy since the Taiwanese, unlike their more 76 Oryx Vol 23 No 2, April 1989

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Rhino horn medicines such as these are smuggled from China into Taiwan by boat [Esmond Bradley Martin). The Taiwanese connection 77

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 30 Sep 2021 at 18:29:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300022730 offer rhino horn for sale. About one-quarter of ible to supply Hong Kong traders for mainland the shops have Asian rhino horn; Indian and China's medicine factories. The wholesale price Sumatran species are almost equally available. in Taipei consequently rose to US$2486 a kg. There is no indication that the Taiwanese are becoming significantly less conservative in their Some of the rhino horn medicines manufactured outlook towards traditional herbs and animal in mainland China are smuggled into Taiwan. products as compared with the more westernized Both countries have huge fleets of fishing boats Chinese in Hong Kong and Singapore where the plying the waters of the Formosa Strait. The crew demand for rhino horn has been reduced. Nor on an average Taiwanese fishing boat may barter do the Taiwanese wish to use in place of rhino as much as US $10,000-worth of goods includ- horn, water buffalo or saiga antelope horn, ing television sets, calculators and electronic which are incomparably cheaper and tradition- equipment on one trip in exchange for Chinese ally acceptable substitutes. As long as rhino horn liquors, herbs, teas, live birds and patent remains readily available they see no reason not medicines from the mainland. Although trade to buy it. between Taiwan and China is illegal, both governments tolerate it. A very large demand for rhino horn in Taiwan since 1986 has come from an exterior source: The only rhino product apart from horn im- traders in Hong Kong. Since Macao and Singa- ported into Taiwan is hide, used as a traditional pore officially banned imports and exports of medicine to cure skin diseases. In July 1988, 40 rhino products in December 1985 and October per cent of the medicine shops in Taipei and 1986 respectively and have enforced their new Kaohsiung offered it for sale, but its average retail laws reasonably well, Taiwan has taken over price had not risen very much during the past their roles in the international trade, emerging as three years (Table 2). Most of it comes from white the major entrepot in eastern Asia. Hong Kong rhinos in southern Africa, but there is also some traders buy African rhino horn from Taiwanese imported from Malaysia, and Hong Kong supplies businessmen mainly for the Chinese mainland processed slices, which are often fake, being market. The horn is ground into powder for made instead from water buffalo hide. Business- patent medicines; only African, not the more ex- men have not shown any interest in investing in pensive Asian horn, is used for these. The two raw rhino hide, nor do foreign traders buy it from main wholesalers in Kaohsiung confirmed to us Taiwan. that between early 1987 and mid-1988 1000 kg were illegally exported from Taiwan to Hong Traders have been buying rhino horn from South Kong traders. During July 1988 when we were in Africa for years. It is difficult to ascertain the ex- Taiwan, there was a massive scramble among port prices, but there is one example of a Port businessmen to buy as much rhino horn as poss- Elizabeth dealer obtaining 99 kg of rhino horn Table 1. Average retail prices for rhinoceros horn in Taiwan Number Total number of (percentage) Type of Average price Year & place pharmacies visited selling horn horn perkginUS$

1979 Taipei 9 9(100%) African 1,596 Asian 17,090 1985 Taipei 34 26(76%) African 1,532 Asian 23,929 1988 Taipei 60 44(73%) African 4,660 Asian 40,558 1985 Kaohsiung 20 18(90%) African 2,077 Asian 21,365 1988 Kaohsiung 15 13 (87%) African 3,347 Asian 42,880 Source: Authors' surveys. 78 Oryx Vol 23 No 2, April 1989

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 30 Sep 2021 at 18:29:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300022730 wife's company for eventual export to Taiwan. (mainly in the town of Tawau) and they are also Taiwanese sailors are also known to have pur- buying it in Singapore and Bangkok. Most of the chased rhino horn and hide in South Africa to horn in Singapore comes from Indonesian smuggle into Taiwan as a means of supplement- rhinos, and that in Bangkok probably originates ing their incomes. from rhinos in northern Thailand, Burma, Laos and Kampuchea. Thus, almost all the scattered Not all this horn originates from rhinos that die in Sumatran rhino populations are threatened by South Africa or Namibia. There has been serious the Taiwanese. black rhino poaching in neighbouring Mozam- bique recently, and some of the horn from these Taiwan is one of the very few countries where animals has passed through Swaziland to South there is a considerable amount of Indian rhino Africa (J. Tello, pers. comm.). Up until late 1987, horn for sale, the majority of which has come most of the horn from rhinos killed illegally in from the northern state of Assam where there are Zambia moved into Burundi from where it was 1300 greater one-horned rhinos, 75 per cent of exported via the United Arab Emirates to North the world's total. Until late 1986, Indian horn was Yemen and eastern Asia. The Burundi Govern- mainly exported to Singapore, but since the ment, however, stopped the trade in rhino horn Singapore Government banned the commerce, and ivory in November 1987, and there is strong it appears from information supplied by traders evidence that the horn from rhinos poached in that consignments are going to Hong Kong; the Zambezi valley now moves into South Africa. some are then transhipped to Taiwan. For example, in October 1988, a lorry carrying 94 rhino horns (loaded in Zambia) was stopped If prices for rhino horn continue to soar in by Botswana Customs and Excise officials at the Taiwan, the consequences for African and Asian Kazungula border post, on its way down to rhinos will be disastrous. It is imperative to take South Africa. immediate action against the trade in Taiwan. First, all stocks of rhino horn and hide in the Because Taiwanese businessmen are paying country should be registered; and individual ever-increasing amounts for rhino horn, middle- horns, of which there are hundreds, should be men in some parts of Africa are now offering marked for identification. Traders and owners of higher prices for their supplies. This further the medicine shops should be given a certain enhances the incentives for poaching. Taiwan time limit to sell their stocks, after which all in- has thus replaced North Yemen as the single ternal sales should be made illegal. Hong Kong greatest threat to the survival of the rhinoceros. and Macao have already done this, in accord- ance with Resolution Conf. 6-10 passed at the Horns from Asian rhinos are, as already noted, 1987 CITES meeting in Canada, which urged all also in great demand in Taiwan, and this is party states to implement a complete prohibition especially endangering Sumatran rhinos, of of sales, internal and external, of all rhinoceros which there may be only 800 left in all Asia. parts and derivatives. In Taiwan, once the stocks Some poachers in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, are registered, the appropriate government offi- and in Indonesia have responded to the demand cials should regularly inspect the medicine shops by increasing their efforts to kill whatever rhinos to check that only these are being sold to con- they can find (Martin, in press). Traditional Iban sumers, and after the ban on internal trade hunters in Sabah, armed with shotguns, may comes into effect, they should make sure that the have to spend up to three months tracking one medicine shops no longer sell any rhino pro- down, but the US$ 7300 they are offered for the ducts. Stiff fines should be imposed for non- pair of horns, the nails and some of the skin from compliance, with perhaps mandatory closure of one carcass make the economic return worth the business for those convicted of a second offence. effort. None of Sabah's estimated population of 100 Sumatran rhinos is safe, and the only one Even more importantly, imports of new stocks of kept in captivity is under guard 24 hours a day. rhino horn to Taiwan must be stopped. The Taiwanese traders purchase the horn from Taiwanese Government does enforce its laws traders and medicine shop owners in Sabah against certain imports, and if the decision- 80 Oryx Vol 23 No 2, April 1989

makers were convinced of the importance of China): World Wide Fund for Nature, African Fund for En- preventing the entry of rhino horn, action would dangered Wildlife and Friends of Howletts and Port Lympne. be taken. Customs officers would be briefed on References identifying horn and particular attention would Martin, E. and Vigne, L. 1987. Recent developments in the be paid to inspecting shipments coming in from rhino horn trade. Traffic Bulletin, 9, 49-53. South Africa. It is up to conservationists to put the Boydell, M. 1988. South Africa luring Taiwan investors, necessary pressure on Taiwan. Trade Winds (Taipei), No. 653, 27-28. Martin, E.B. (in press). The illegal killing of Sumatran rhinos Acknowledgments and the trade in their products in Western Borneo. We wish to express gratitude to the following organizations, Esmond and Chryssee Bradley Martin, P.O. Box 15510 which supported our recent visit to Taiwan (the Republic of Mbagathi, Nairobi, Kenya.

The Taiwanese connection 81